Dalton Transactions

Scope

Dalton Transactions embraces all aspects of the chemistry of inorganic and organometallic compounds, including the following.

Biological inorganic chemistry and solid-state inorganic chemistry (in particular work that explores the synthesis and analysis of materials)

The application of physicochemical and computational techniques to the study of their structures, properties and reactions, including kinetics and mechanisms

New or improved experimental techniques and syntheses

Manuscripts that describe purely physical, crystallographic or computational work must include the clear relevance of the work to the broad inorganic and organometallic readership of Dalton Transactions.

Editorial board

Philip Mountford, Chair, University of Oxford, UK

John Arnold, Associate Editor, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Article types

Communications

Preliminary accounts of original and significant work of such importance that rapid publication is justified may be published in Communication form.

Material intended for a Communications should be of specific specialist interest to inorganic chemists. Full papers based upon Communications will be acceptable provided that they represent a substantial amplification and extension of the original material.

The recommended length for a communication is three printed journal pages, however some flexibility is allowed.

Full papers

Full papers contain original scientific work that has not been published previously. However, work that has appeared in print in a short form such as a or in ChemComm is normally acceptable.

Perspectives

Perspectives are normally published by invitation. However, suggestions from authors are welcome and enquiries regarding the submission of Perspectives should be directed to the editor.

Perspectives are short readable articles covering current areas of interest for an inorganic chemistry audience; they may take the form of personal accounts of research or a critical analysis of activity in a specialist area. By their nature they will not be comprehensive reviews of a field of chemistry.

Since the readership of Dalton Transactions is wide-ranging the article should be easily comprehensible to a non-specialist in the field, whilst at the same time providing an authoritative discussion of the area concerned.

Frontiers

Frontiers are normally published by invitation. However, suggestions from authors are welcome and enquiries regarding the submission of Frontiers should be directed to the editor.

Frontiers are short, readable articles covering current areas of interest for an inorganic chemistry audience; they may take the form of personal accounts of research or critical analyses of a specialist area. By their nature, they will not be comprehensive reviews of a field of chemistry.

Since the readership of Dalton Transactions is wide-ranging, the article should be easily comprehensible to a non-specialist in the field whilst at the same, time providing an authoritative discussion of the area concerned.

Letters

Letters are a medium for the expression/exchange of scientific opinions/views normally concerning material published in the journal, but not for revision/updating of authors' own work. They are not intended to compete with media for the publication of more general matters, such as Chemistry World.

Only rarely should a Letter exceed one printed column in length (about one-two pages of typescript).

Where a Letter is polemical in nature, and if it is accepted, a Reply will be solicited from other parties implicated for publication alongside the original Letter.

Journal specific guidelines

It is the responsibility of authors to provide fully convincing evidence for the homogeneity, purity and identity of all compounds they claim as new. This evidence is required to establish that the properties and constants reported are those of the compound with the new structure claimed. Referees will assess, as a whole, the evidence presented in support of the claims made by the authors.

Inorganic and organometallic compounds

A new chemical substance (molecule or extended solid) should have a homogeneous composition and structure. Where the compound is molecular, authors must provide data to unequivocally establish its homogeneity, purity and identification. In general, this should include elemental analyses that agree to within ±0.4% of the calculated values.

In cases where elemental analyses cannot be obtained (for example, for thermally unstable compounds), justification for the omission of this data should be provided. Note that an X-ray crystal structure is not sufficient for the characterisation of a new material, since the crystal used in this analysis does not necessarily represent the bulk sample. In rare cases, it may be possible to substitute elemental analyses with high-resolution mass spectrometric molecular weights. This is appropriate, for example, with trivial derivatives of thoroughly characterised substances or routine synthetic intermediates.

In all cases, relevant spectroscopic data (NMR, IR, UV-vis, etc.) should be provided in tabulated form or as reproduced spectra. These may be relegated to the electronic supplementary information (ESI) to conserve journal space. However, it should be noted that, in general, mass spectrometric and spectroscopic data do not constitute proof of purity, and, in the absence of elemental analyses, additional evidence of purity should be provided (melting points, PXRD data, etc).

Where the compound is an extended solid, it is important to unequivocally establish the chemical structure and bulk composition. Single crystal diffraction does not determine the bulk structure. Referees will normally look to see evidence of bulk homogeneity.

A fully indexed powder diffraction pattern that agrees with single crystal data may be used as evidence of a bulk homogeneous structure and chemical analysis may be used to establish purity and homogeneous composition.

Readership information

All researchers working in inorganic and organometallic chemistry, including biological inorganic chemistry.

Subscription information

Dalton Transactions is part of collections RSC Gold and Core Chemistry.